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2 points by pau 6096 days ago | link | parent

> pgs sentiment that modules are a cognitive barrier

Can you give pointers to PGs essays or books about this?



1 point by drcode 6096 days ago | link

I think it's in the ansi common lisp book- unfortunately, my copy became too dog eared (the paperback is unfortunately a bit flimsy) and I threw it out, otherwise I'd let you know for sure. I think he was complaining about the CL module system being to hard to understand...

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6 points by pau 6096 days ago | link

Found it, I think!

"The kind of modularity provided by packages is actually a bit odd. We have modules not of objects, but of names. Every package that uses 'common-lisp' has access to the name 'cons', because 'common-lisp' includes a function with that name. But in consequence a variable called 'cons' would also be visible in every package that used 'common-lisp'. If packages are confusing, this is the main reason why; they're not based on objects, but on their names".

You know, I now remember having read this... ;)

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5 points by cchooper 6096 days ago | link

I like the interesting footnote, very relevant to this discussion:

> So perhaps packages will turn out to be a reasonable way of providing modularity. It is prima facie evidence on their side that they resemble the techniques that programmers naturally use in the absence of a formal module system.

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5 points by Jesin 6096 days ago | link

He seems not to be saying we shouldn't have modules, but instead that we shouldn't use this kind of module.

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